Chapter 1422 (Patreon)

“So, find anything interesting?” I asked, landing somewhat close to Lia. She had been looking through the ruins here, investigating the odd plants and what influence the dungeon might have had on them. At least she had been. Now she was just idling around, smashing some of the skeletons wandering the area, probably to keep herself from getting overly bored. 

“It’s strange,” she replied, though her tone was distant and a little distracted. Clearly, she heard me, but her mind was elsewhere. 

“Those skeletons,” she continued, more talking to herself than talking to me. “They are animated, but there’s no life in them, not even the corrupted version that the Shattered have, or whatever you want to call it. Animated, but without vitality?” she mused, as if trying to find the right words, only to shake her head and correct herself.

“No, that’s not quite right. They have, well, something. Some form of animating energy, but it’s obviously not life.” She shook her head, her eyes finally focusing on me instead of the nearby skeletons. 

“Well, obviously it’s not life,” I told her, not even trying to hide my grin. “Why would it be? I mean, seriously? Why would ‘life’ be the only force capable of animating things?” I paused for a second, but she didn’t try to reply just yet. “Just because it’s the most common? The most prevalent in nature, and maybe the one that takes root in reality the easiest?”

“I’m fairly certain that any form of energy can animate; it’s just a question of, well, of motivation?” Now, it was my turn to look for a better word, and I didn’t quite find one. “Or maybe suitability. I mean, I’ve seen naturally animated Ice before, and you remember the Tallest’ Guardian, don’t you? That thing was as natural as can be, but it was about as alive as any other stone. Just a massive amount of Astral Power, providing animation for something that would otherwise just lie somewhere, motionless unless it’s going downhill.”

“So, what does it mean to be alive?” Lia asked, her voice somewhat amused but also pensive. That tone made me realise that she might empathise with these skeletons. After all, how big was the difference between an actual Undead, even one as mindless as these skeletons, and a Vampire, with their shattered Soul glued together by an outside power and a whole lot of luck?

“Good question, depends, I guess,” I replied, shrugging because there wasn’t really a good answer. Even before the Change, the definition of ‘Life’ and ‘Living thing’ had been somewhat nebulous. There had been a set of characteristics, but only some had to be met, and even if some were, it didn’t necessarily mean you qualified because others weren’t met at the same time. I remembered a joke that we knew Life when we saw it, even though that joke focused on extraterrestrial life, which made things even more complicated and speculative. After all, if you can’t define something based on examples you already have, how can you define that same ‘something’ while accounting for speculative ideas that might be out there in the endless void of space?

“Maybe by saying ‘it’s alive if it gives EXP’,” I joked, knowing there were countless beings out there that would never give EXP, like the endless swarms of Mosquitoes Luna and I had struggled through for quite some time. Though could those Mosquitoes actually get EXP and gain levels? If so, how horrible would Africa be right now, with their endless Mosquitoes and the numerous people who die from diseases transmitted by those very Mosquitoes every year? Would those deaths count for the Mosquitoes, and, if so, how many high-level pests would be haunting that continent right now? Because depending on that, Africa might have taken the cake from Australia for having the most horrible fauna. And maybe Flora, too; I wasn’t sure. 

“But seriously, I don’t think there’s an easy answer, simply because Magic can change some of the rules on a whim. Or rather, at someone’s whim. Not to mention creatures that don’t have a body in the first place, like that Spirit I bound a while back, or creatures that died but haven't yet moved on, losing their body in the process. I’ve met a bunch of those on Mundus, but I wouldn’t say they are alive.” I shrugged again, making it clear I found the topic interesting but ultimately meaningless. 

“What made you think about this?” I asked, trying to change the topic to something more meaningful. At the same time, I looked around, searching for a good spot to dig a shelter so I could set up an anchor. Maybe not right next to the Dungeon, though, with its endlessly spawning Undead.

“Just-” she paused, letting out a sigh. “I’ve been thinking about my own being. What am I, I mean, beyond your pet?” She grinned, her voice losing the pensive, somewhat morose tone for a moment. She even winked at me, making me roll my eyes in response, as we both knew this was an issue I felt more strongly about than she did.

“You are you, unique and the first of your kind,” I replied easily, noticing a large pile of rubble a bit away from the dungeon, completely overgrown with actual shrubs, not the tainted, twisted branches so common closer to the dungeon. 

“Didn’t you get a trait or something for that? Primordial Ancestor, or some dross like that. So, you are the first, and we know that you don’t have to be the only. It’s up to you what vampires will be in the future, both in the common imagination and in reality. So, if you want to figure out a way to make yourself sparkle in the Sun, go for it; if you want to glow under the moonlight, more power to you, especially if you can make it hereditary.” Lia's utterly horrified look made me chortle with delight, especially when I twisted a bit of magic into a cold, slightly chilling light that nearly matched the luminescence of a full moon.

“See, you are already glowing like the Moon; maybe I named the wrong daughter Luna,” I laughed before letting the glow fade, my mind focusing on the rubble I wanted to build under and the plant currently holding the pile together. 

“Really? You really went there?” she asked, trying to hold onto the offended mask she had plastered over her face. If only her mouth wasn’t twitching up as she desperately fought against an amused smile. 

“Yep, I went here, I went there, but hopefully I won’t go everywhere. Sounds painful, getting splattered across everything,” I joked, letting my magic infuse the plant, strengthening it against the necrotic environment. It wasn’t as efficient as a true divine blessing would have been, but it had to be enough for now. Maybe I could get back with Luna; she was so much better with living things, at least if we didn’t want to hoffically mutate something.

Though, to be fair, she was better wth that, too. At least she had a much better chance to keep the horrifically mutated creature alive afterwards. And what good was a horrible abomination and crime against nature if it just keeled over dead from mismatched parts?

“You are strange right now,” Lia complained, but I was fairly certain she wasn’t really insulted. Maybe just a bit annoyed. 

“Maybe,”  I admitted, feeling a little strange. “Might be because I had a rather close call with Death, if you will. Not close to dying, but looking at Death Magic, tugging on the combination of Death and Soul Magic, it’s…” I just shook my head, focusing my magic to open a space beneath the rubble while making sure it stayed stable and largely fused together. “I think I’m trying to mentally distance myself from the psychic, magical, spiritual, whatever you want to call it, imprint here.”

“You wouldn’t believe how much death happened here,” I continued, feeling a shudder run down my spine. “Sure, it was only chickens. But we are talking about hundreds of millions of them, all dying. Even if it happened before the Change, that much death left a mark.”

“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Does the system rate human deaths higher than animals?” I paused for a moment. “If so, how would some places of unimaginable human suffering feel?”

With a soft rumble, the space I had prepared underground opened up, and I walked down the stairs, already looking forward to the magically and mentally taxing job of inscribing the runic anchor. Hopefully, the work would be sufficient to distract me or to let me turn off my mind. 

My walk was interrupted when Lia came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. 

“If you need to be held, just tell me. While I can’t know what you felt up there, I know that I’ll always be here for you, and you can bet that Luna would do the same,” she tried to reassure me, making me smile wanly for a moment, as I let myself relax into her form. Maybe hugging my daughters would be nice right now, letting me simply, well, stop thinking.